In certain industries, it is commercially desirable to design shipping packaging to be reusable. For example, where the product for shipment and distribution is itself packaged in a form convenient for sale, it may be economical to reuse the shipping packaging once delivery is accomplished.
This concept applies in the beer brewing industry. Typically, beer which has been bottled can economically be shipped in cartons which may be emptied and reused. Moreover, if the beer bottles are themselves reusable, the reusable cartons become a convenient and economical means for storing and returning empty bottles for refilling.
For a shipping carton to be reusable, it must be durable. This is especially true where the items packaged are relatively heavy as in the case of beer bottles. Additionally, to be feasible for commercial use, the reusable carton must be low in cost. Typically, durability and cost considerations are in opposition and must be reconciled to obtain an optimum commercial design.
A factor intimately associated with carton cost and durability is the equipment used for its production. The production equipment must be capable of producing cartons at rates sufficiently high to keep cost per unit low. Further, the equipment must be capable of producing cartons, at the high production rates which are of acceptable quality. Yet further the equipment cost must be low enough to warrant investment by the user.
Therefore, the apparatus for producing a proposed design must itself meet certain criteria for the design to be acceptable. Specifically, the equipment must be capable of high production rates. Additionally, the equipment must be capable of producing products of acceptable quality at the high production rates. Finally, the equipment must be sufficiently low in cost to justify its use.
This invention relates to just such a situation. A carton design intended to be durable was proposed for use in the beer industry. A principal aspect of the proposed design was its strength. The strength resulted from the materials employed and the form of construction. More specifically, the general design called for a two element construction. One element of that construction was a reusable open topped shell. The shell was reusable by virtue of its strength. The principal reasons for the shell's strength was the use of compound end wall reinforcements.
The shell was to be formed as an open topped carton having side walls substantially perpendicular to the carton's width axis and end walls substantially perpendicular to the carton's length axis. The compound end wall reinforcement structures were to be finished by folding and gluing vertically extending end wall flaps into reinforcing relationship with the respective end walls.
Feasibility of the design was predicated upon the availability of equipment which could produce finished reinforced end walls of desired quality at high rate.
Rates of production required for economy, made it impossible to obtain finished cartons of acceptable quality with the use of a standard single carton flap folder. Simultaneous use of multiple individual folding equipment, while potentially meeting the speed requirements, rendered the equipment unacceptably high in cost. Multiple individual units in parallel also created questions of reduced system reliability due to increased numbers of components. Further, the use of multiple parallel arranged individual folding units required additional apparatus to join the parallel arranged single folders with the single output from the upstream equipment. Still further use of two parallel arranged single folders would require unnecessary duplication of many parts of the folding equipment itself.
Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide apparatus for forming carton wall reinforcements.
A further object of this invention is to provide apparatus for forming carton wall reinforcements at acceptably high production rates.
A further object of this invention is to provide apparatus for producing wall reinforcements of acceptable quality and integrity at high production rates.
A further object of this invention is to provide apparatus having a single input and multiple outputs.
A further object of this invention is to provide apparatus which avoids unnecessary duplication of equipment, while providing for multiple carton wall reinforcement formation.
A further object of this invention is to provide apparatus which is reduced in cost due to reduced numbers of components.